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Navy SEALs’ most deadly sniper killed at gun range

A mentally ill man at a gun range in Texas may have managed to do what Iraq’s most desperate insurgents couldn’t – kill the US’s most deadly sniper.

It’s a sad and undeserving end for Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, who was allegedly murdered along with another man by former Marine Eddie Routh, at point blank range at the Rough Creek Lodge on Saturday.

Kyle’s autobiography, American Sniper, carried him on the cover with the label “The most lethal sniper in US military history”.

Of his 255 claimed kills, 160 had been confirmed.

He joined up with the SEALs in 1999 and did four tours of duty in Iraq, but it was in Ramadi west of Baghdad that he earned the name “The Devil of Rahmadi” and a $20,000 bounty on his head, which then rose as high as $80,000.

According to his autobiography, his longest kill shot was made 1.93km from his target.

When he finally came home, he arguably achieved more notoriety by claiming to have punched wrestling legend Jesse The Body Ventura down with a single punch in a bar.

At the time of his death, there was still a defamation lawsuit pending from Ventura, who denied the claim.